Violence against journalists is part of the authorities' campaign on rigging the elections to the Yerevan Elders' Council, Arman Musinyan, Spokesperson of the Armenian National Congress Party (ANC), said at a press conference on Thursday. He said that the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA)
has made the ANC a target. This is proved by the fact that they beat an iLur journalist and an ANC activist, who was distributing booklets.
To recall, on April 23 the ANC disseminated a statement saying that during the Apr 23 meeting of mayor Taron Margaryan with the voters in Nor Nork community, Aram Papyan, representative of the community and the organizer of the meeting, hindered journalist Hakob Karapetyan's work because Karapetyan was a representative of the opposition mass media. Papyan and his supporters took away the camera from the journalist and deleted the record. Afterwards they beat him. The journalist received various bodily injuries. Another incident took place in Ajapnyan administrative district.
Musinyan thinks that the authorities, representatives of the incumbent mayor Margaryan's campaign headquarters and Margaryan himself realize that they will be defeated in case of fair elections. "Today they organize provocations and beat the journalists and activities of the ANC, tomorrow they will rig the voter lists", he said. He added that the population's attitude to the ruling party is extremely negative, and the ANC representatives saw that during the meetings with the voters.